Bumpy road ahead for transport sector

Hanoi (VNA) - The need to
regulate the vehicle-service industry is crucial to achieve sufficient growth
and meet consumer needs, especially during the 4.0 Industrial Revolution.

This point was made at a workshop on service conditions on January
23 by Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic
Management (CIEM).

His view was supported by Phan Duc Hieu, the institute’s deputy
director, who was concerned that recent transport service draft laws would not
be sufficient to solve shortcomings in practice nor overcome rapid changes in
the market.

Hieu also acknowledged that
traffic safety requirements for transport businesses under the current
Vietnamese Law on Road Traffic were not clear and restricted business goals for
most transport enterprises.

Sharing this view, Tran Duc Nghia, a board member of the Vietnam
Logistics Association, mentioned one specific law provision - stipulating how
transport business units must have parking spaces available and under
local governance.

Nghia said such a rule should be removed, since it was appropriate
in practice for passenger transportation, but not suitable for
freight.

Some other road traffic provisions were considered unnecessary and
too specific to bind enterprises, creating unfairness between different transport
sectors, such as strict conditions of ownership, which he thought were
unreasonable.

Hieu said that current regulations stood on the side of suppliers,
not demand or harmony between transport enterprises and consumers.

He hoped unfairness would be eliminated by future formulation of
medium- and long-term policies, since benefiting consumers must be seen the
basis for designing legislation.

A need for such a counterbalance stemmed from rapid urbanisation,
expansion of services, application of information technology and fierce
competition. .

Nguyen Van Lap, director of the Nuoc Ngam Bus Station, explained
his unit’s difficulty, by mentioning restrictions on the allowed number of
automobile rentals, limiting the market and legal rights of ownership
for car rental companies.

Nguyen Cong Hung, deputy director of the Hanoi Taxi Association,
said that traditional taxis businesses were constrained by too many business
conditions. And as the price of gasoline surged, they were not able to
re-adjust their fares in time.

He recommended that for rate changes below 5 percent,
taxi businesses should not need to notify state agencies, so they can cut down on
costs and time.

Hung also proposed the use of yellow licence plates for taxis
within city limits, which he believed would help regulate and create equity for
all transport service vehicles.

Cung further said that prohibiting or restricting the use of electronic
tools was contrary to State policies on encouraging technology to improve the
transport sector.

In the end, he said that in addition to ensuring
traffic safety, there should be regulations to encourage the transport
industry, especially as the potential was huge. "Policy makers just need
to put customers’ interests first," he said

The workshop was organised by the institute in collaboration with
the Logistics Association and the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association
in Hanoi, focusing on present issues and policy recommendations for business
conditions.-VNA